Computers have become widely-used tools in the creation and editing of music and other audio-related data. Digital data representing a musical or other type of auditory composition or recording can be easily created and/or manipulated using available editing software, such as ProTools® from Digidesign® and others. A musician can playback any portion of a sound file or sound data, and copy, edit or otherwise manipulate any section of the data using such software. Graphical controls in a graphical user interface, such as sliders, knobs, buttons, pointer or cursor, etc., are typically displayed on a computer screen which the user can manipulate to control sound data playback and editing. A visual representation of the sound data is typically displayed as one or more time vs. amplitude graphs which the user can customize to a desired scale. Some more elaborate systems provide a hardware control such as a jog-shuttle wheel, which is a spring-centered knob which the user can rotate to playback a sound selection in forward or reverse.
However, one of the challenges in contemporary computer-manipulated music is to allow musicians to relate to computers in a way that is conducive to natural and instinctive music composition and editing. Much of the editing and composition process resides in the way people relate to the physical interfaces used to control computers. Traditionally, musicians have learned to work with instruments that directly bind physical manipulation to sound production (e.g., the action of a piano, or a trumpet as a resonator for lip vibrations). However, this type of physical relationship is difficult to reproduce with computers. In most cases today, the interaction with computers occurs through a keyboard and a mouse or, in less frequent circumstances, specialized hardware such as custom-developed electronic musical controllers. These types of interfaces are unidirectional, allowing the musician or other user to send physical input to the computer, but do not allow for the reception of physical feedback.
Current sound editing systems require the musician to use input devices such as keyboards and mice, passive scroll wheels, or passive joysticks while editing sounds. In these cases the musician must rely on auditory and visual feedback. However, the musician or user often performs repetitive editing tasks requiring precision, such as navigating through a musical or speech selection to find particular areas that are to be edited or manipulated. The standard input devices and auditory and visual feedback may sometimes be awkward, inefficient, or insufficiently precise at such navigation and editing tasks, thus causing frustration in the musician's creative efforts.